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Topic: Downfacing IR burner -- Attempt #2 (Read 1574 times)

You all may recall my first build of this oven that failed to to the downfacing IR burner not getting enough fresh air to function. I've completed some major modifications to the design including a top vent that allows fresh air to reach the IR burner's air/gas mixing chamber, quarry tile shelf around IR burner (holds some heat that would otherwise escape through the new top vent), and heat deflectors over bottom burners. Fired it up over the weekend, and the downfacing IR burner now works great! Pizza stone hit 800F in about 15 minutes.

First pizza attempt using some pizza dough from WholeFoods. Made a small pizza trying to conserve dough so I could experiment a bit. This one cooked in 1 min 30 seconds. Oven seemed too hot as both the top and bottom burned and dough still not fully cooked in middle.

Second pizza. This time I tried cooking it on a pizza screen on top of the stone. Now the top started burning before the top was fully cooked, so had to take off the screen while baking and put directly on stone. Hmm... Seems that I need to go back to pizza straight on the pizza stone, but maybe a different dough recipe? Would higher hydration help? I may also just try moving my IR burner up since it is height adjustable

What's a good dough recipe to get started with that works well with high temp ovens??? I've done some work perfecting doughs for low temp ovens and baking on pizza screens, but am charting into new territory now!!

Fabulous workmanship, as always. Glad the IR burner is working properly and your warm-up time is so fast. You are making good progress on the pies.

We seem to have a lot it common (grill, 15min to 800F, fast bake time, etc.). Like you, I think Iíve got room to improve. A few comments from my experiences on my setup:

- The bottom of the pie is straight forward (IMO). Pick a stone temperature and bake time, then throw it and set the timer. For Neo pies, 780- 800F stone temp (measured Ĺ way from the center to the outside rim) seems to work best for a 1-2 minute pie. Two minutes on my stone (looks like yours) gives a slight crisp to bottom with 00 flour, and I like that. Less than 1: 45 and the bottom of the pizza gets floppy. More than 2 minutes and the bottom gets charred.- The thickness of the pie and ingredients matter a lot. Two minutes isnít enough time to cook a thick dough OR a lot of ingredients. A simple Margarita works well on a thinly stretched dough in 2 minutes.- Anything with high water content doesnít do well in quick bakes because there isnít enough oven time (watery sauce, motz not dried by pressing in a paper towel, tomatoes, green peppers, etc.). Thin slices of motz work better for me than shredded because the shredded has lower surface area and tends get brown spots in high-heat, fast-cook environments.- For thicker dough and/or heavy ingredients, consider a 4-5 minute bake with a stone temp around 650F-700F using regular flour (I use high gluten). Five minute pies are tasty too, I just donít wear the VPN Chef hat when serving.- Maybe itís just me, but Iíve never seen the need for a screen. If the bottom of the pie burns, I pick a lower stone temperature for the next pie throw. This gives me predictable underside spotting, so I can focus on char points around the upper rim and try for minimal brown spots on the cheese.

As long as you have a reasonably calibrated IR gun, you should get results nearly identical to mine on the bottom of the pie (spotted - just like many of the pictures on the forum). Also, donít assume the restaurant temperature numbers are more than marketing. As an example, I was at well-know coal-fired restaurant sampling their 900F pizza recently. Something was amiss, and the owner seemed nice, so I asked him to gun the oven floor Ė 640F was the highest stone temp and that was right in front of the coals. Besides the owner, there were a handful of staff present, and I was the only one without a surprised look on my face. Hum..